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PROPOSED ANNEXATION OF THE 
HAWAIIAN REPUBLIC. 



SPEECH 



HON. ALBERT S. BERRY, 



OF KENTUCKY 



in the; 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



Wednesday, Junk 15, 1898. 



WASHINGTON. 
1S98. 



.-■>• 



72954 



4> & > 

> * cf* SPEECH 

^. OF 

^•HON. ALBERT S. BERKY. 






<' 



The House having under consideration the joint resolution (H. Res. S59-) to 
provide for annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States — 

Mr. BERRY said: 

Mr. Speaker: I appreciate the importance of the question now 
under consideration. Perhaps none of more gravity has ever 
been presented to the consideration of the American Congress in 
many years. I am an advocate of the annexation of the Republic 
of Hawaii — of the Newlands resolutions, which contemplate the 
indorsement of the treaty recommended to the Senate by Presi- 
dent McKinley. I dislike very much to disagree with any portion 
of my party associates, but after patient and careful consideration 
I am satisfied they are in error who oppose this increase of terri- 
tory, recommended by the best minds of America, and we are 
willing to trust to time to vindicate the wisdom of our action. 

Never, sir, has there been one foot of territory added to the 
thirteen little colonies that first formed this Government along 
the Atlantic seaboard, up to this hour, when our territory is more 
thau 3,000,000 square miles, that there was not violent opposition 
to the annexation. The apostle of Democracy, Thomas Jefferson, 
-who has been quoted so much in this discussion, said himself 
when he gave his adherence to the purchase of the Louisiana ter- 
ritory from Napoleon, that there was no constitutional right for 
it, but that its advocates must appeal to the American people for 
an indorsement of the proposition. 

Think of it, sir, in 1803, we were about 5,000,000 people. We 
had just emerged from a fearful struggle. Our garments were 
torn and bloody. Scarcely knowing whether we had a national 
existence, and only by the aid of a foreign power could we have 
achieved our independence. The mouth of the Mississippi was 
owned by foreign powers, and its commerce would be largely con- 
trolled by them. The first intention was to purchase what was 
known as the Island of New Orleans, where the city is now situ- 
ated, as a resting place for the craft navigating that stream, which 
would of necessity be rapidly augmented. 

We were represented at the court of France by a man who had 
administered the oath of office to George Washington as the first 
President of the United States, Mr. "Livingston. He was in- 
structed to negotiate for the Island of New Orleans at a price not 
exceeding $'3,000,000. The proposition was laid before the French 
minister, Marbois, Avho, under the direction of Napoleon, fearing 
the English might get it by conquest, said he would not only sell 
us the is'and, but all the extensive territory they possessed on 
the continent. Eighty million dollars was the price asked. 
2 3483 



Mr. Monroe, afterwards President of the United States, wag 
sent over to a : d Mr. Livingston in arranging the terms, which 
negotiation laid in his mind the doctrine which will ever bear his 
name, and the price was fixed at $15,000,000. There were many- 
representative men in 1803, as there are in 1898;' who declaimed 
against this Louisiana purchase — a wise and patriotic movp: Mr. 
Livingston became alarmed, receiving information of' the opposi- 
tion to this new acquisition, extending from the Gulf '"of Mexico 
to the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Living.- ton said to his countrymen,- " If 
we have more than we need, we can dispose of a part. ' But not 
one foot has ever been sold. That was Democratic doctrine then, 
as it is now, and the Democratic orators of to day love to pro- 
claim on the stump that our broad domain is to the credit of the 
party that followed Thomas Jefferson. 

When the State of Louisiana came into the Union, there was 
found in the State of Massachusetts a distinguished man by the 
name of Josiah Quincy, who made a speech very much like those 
I have heard on the floor during this discussion, in which he said 
that the country was now going to pieces, that we were entering 
upon an imperial course, and that it was ruin to the country. 
Listen how much this sounds like my friend Clark's speech, or 
that of my friend from Arkansas [Mr. DinsmoreJ. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. I hope the gentleman will not at- 
tribute to me borrowing Josiah Quincy 's ideas, for I take no stock 
in them. 

Mr. BERRY. But they both violate the idea of Democracy. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. Nothing of the sort. Josiah Quincy 
was a secessionist, and always was, and I never was. 

Mr. BERRY. But I will show you better Democratic authority 
than you ever had in Missouri that the Democratic party hag 
always been for the annexation of territory to the United States, 
and even the man that the Republican party sought to impeach, 
and a better Democrat never lived on this continent than Andrew 
Johnson, under whose auspices the Territory of Alaska was added 
to this country, and not contiguous territory, as some gentlemen 
have been arguing here. 

Now, what did Josiah Quincy say when Louisiana was going 
to be admitted as a State? I would like to call my distinguished 
friend's attention, the gentleman from Louisiana, to this. Josiah 
Quincy says: 

Under the sanction of this rule of conduct I am compelled to declare it as 
my deliberate opinion that if this bill passes the bonds of this Union are vir- 
tually dissolved; that the States which compose it are free from their moral 
obligations, and that as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of 
some, to prepare definitely for a separation— amicably if they can, violently 
if they must. 

Again: 

If this bill pass, it is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually a dissolu- 
tion of this Union; that it will free the States from their moral obligations, 
and as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to 
prepare for a separation— amicably if they must. 

Now, how much that sounds like speeches made upon this floor 
in this discussion that I have listened to on this side—" that we 
are going on an imperial course " and ' ' we are changing the prin- 
ciples of the Government." Why, gentlemen, we have been woo- 
ing the little Republic of Hawaii for more than half a century. 
We have been wooing it under Democratic Administration, under 
Republican Administration, under every Administration from 
3183 



1842, when Tyler was at the head of this Government, to the pres- 
ent time. Every Democrat except Grover Cleveland — you can not 
find a single announcement up to this hour coming from the Dem- 
ocratic party tbat has not been in favor of the annexation of Ha- 
waii. Mr. Buchanan — was he a Democrat? Mr, Legare — was he 
a Democrat? Mr. Bayard — was he a Democrat? 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. No. 

Mr. BERRY, Why, you supported him and he was elected and 
was the mouthpiece of the Democratic party until he became associ- 
ated with Grover Cleveland. Was Pierce a Democrat? Was Bu- 
chanan, his Secretary of State (afterwards himself a Democratic 
President, at the head of the Government when the civil war 
came upon us) — was he a Democrat? All these men have alike ex- 
pressed their opinion that ultimately the Hawaiian Islands would 
become a part of the United States. Mr. Bayard said that when- 
ever the apple was ripe it would naturally fall into the lap of the 
United States. And so it is coming now. 

Mr. BAIRD. If the acquisition of the Hawaiian Islands is 
Democratic policy and has always been such, why is it that to-day 
it is indorsed by the Republican Administration and will receive 
the almost unanimous vote of the Republicans in this House? 

Mr. BERRY. Weil, I will tell you. The Hawaiian Islands 
occupy a peculiar position: they are a sort of derelict out in the 
North Pacific, waving a flag of distress. Naturally as those 
islands became known they became an object worthy of attention 
and consideration from this country. In the first place, about 
1820, when the Americans sent missionaries there for the purpose 
of civilizing the natives, they found them in an almost barbarous 
condition and set to work to bring about a condition of civilization. 
Those missionaries took the native language, which was then 
without form, and gave it form — printed it in grammars and 
other books; and it has been taught for years upon the islands 
under the influence and inspiration of the American missionaries. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. Will it interrupt the gentleman if 
I ask him a question? 

Mr. BERRY. Not a particle. Let me say that if anybody 
wants to ask me any questions during the delivery of this speech 
I am ready to answer them. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. Is it not true historically and abso- 
lutely that the action of William L. Marcy, Franklin Pierce, 
James Buchanan, and that whole crowd of Democrats prior to 
1861 in advocating this annexation policy was part and parcel of 
the African slavery propaganda of which the Ostend manifesto 
was another manifestation? Is not that true? 

Mr. BERRY. I will answer the gentleman's question. All 
along through the history of the admission of States to this Union, 
up to and including the time of the civil war, the question of 
slavery had a good deal to do with whether men in political life 
were for or against the admission. The men from the cotton 
States were in favor of the annexation of such territory as would 
give to them representation in favor of the Democracy; and the 
people of the North, as my distinguished friend [Mr. Grow] who 
is now looking at me knows full well, whenever there arose an 
occasion when territory proposed to be admitted was likely to be 
represented by old Whigs or Republicans on this floor, they were 
advocates of such annexation. But that question has gone by. 
The institution of slavery went down with the war. That ques- 
tion no longer enters into this proposition at all. 

3483 



Mr. CLARK of Missouri. . But if that is true, ought not the 
arguments which those men used to go down with the question 
itself? 

Mr. BERRY. That is a question which the gentleman can set- 
tle for himself. If he does not like these arguments, he need not 
adopt them. The arguments I like I propose to adopt in the 
course of this speech, showing that the Democracy of this country 
has stood for annexation at all times. 

Mr. GROW. Will the gentleman allow me a moment? 

Mr. BERRY. Yes, sir. 

Mr. GROW. If it will not interrupt the gentleman, I would 
like, before he leaves this historical recital, to call his attention to 
a fact which of course he knows, but has inadvertently passed 
over. 

Mr. BERRY. What is that? 

Mr. GROW. When the Louisiana purchase was under consid- 
eration, Mr. Livingston, representing this country, proposed only 
in the first instance to purchase from France all her territory east 
of the Mississippi River, but the French insisted that we should 
take it all. 

Mr. BERRY. Yes, sir; and it grew out of the idea that Na- 
poleon Bonaparte had found he could not hold the territory, and 
rather than let it go into the hands of England he gave it to the 
American people for a very small consideration; and he said when 
he did so that he would raise up a power on this continent that 
would threaten the position of England. And such has been the 
effect. To-day England extends her hand in anxiety to join her 
Anglo-Saxon kin on this side of the water for the control of the 
policy of the world. 

Not only that. Do we not all recollect the circumstances con- 
nected with the annexation of Texas? And, by the bye, I believe 
there is not a Texas man on this floor who now favors annexation. 
Yet we wooed her for a while, and Texas wooed us for admission to 
the Union; and we admitted her. Out of that grew the Mexican 
war, which resulted in our obtaining the magnificent territory 
leading out to the Pacific. From Kentucky and all over the 
South we unsheathed our swords to defend the honor of the 
American flag in Mexico, and we followed that flag successfully 
until we saw it wave over the halls of the Montezumas, and we 
shall see it waving over Morro Castle and wherever else the 
American people feel disposed to plant it. It shall kiss the breezes 
of the Tropics as it is sure to wave over the Hawaiian Islands. 

What was the effect upon those who opposed annexation? Tom 
Corwin, of Ohio, was the opponent of the war with Mexico. He 
was a great man, a great lawyer. He said he trusted that when- 
ever Americans crossed the Rio Grande they would be welcomed 
with bloody hands to hospitable graves. And he was welcomed 
to a political grave, for he could never hold up his political head 
after making that declaration. 

Mr. GROW. Will it interrupt the gentleman 

Mr. BERRY. Not a particle, sir. I am making a random sort 
of a speech upon a subject that I think I understand. 

Mr. GROW. Mr. Corwin's declaration was that if he was a 
Mexican, as he was an American, he would welcome our soldiers 
with bloody hands to a hospitable grave. 

Mr. BERRY. That is the same idea. I do not pretend to give 
the exact phraseology. I recollect the circumstances. So. sir, if 
we had been contentious then, as we ought to have been, instead 
8483 



6 

of Vancouver and the country from Vancouver to Sitka being 
under the control of the English Government the Louisiana pur- 
chase justly entitled us to that territory, in order that we might be 
connected with the Alaskan country in the far North, and it would 
not now be declared not to be contiguous territory. We all remem- 
ber that controversy in our history, and we recollect the ride of 
Dr. Whitman, which saved Oregon to us. Why, there was a time 
when even men like our old friend Benton, the apostle of Democ- 
racy, said that it would never do to extend this country much 
beyond the Mississippi River, that the Rocky Mountains were the 
natural boundary, and that it would never do to go beyond the 
Rocky Mountains. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. Will the gentleman allow me to sug- 
gest that that is a historical mistake? 

Mr. BERRY. Let us see whether it is. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. Tom Benton always clamored for 
that line up to 54° 40'. 

Mr. BERRY. Later in life he did. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. And he drew the most remarkable 
picture of the teeming population of the Oregon Valley that was 
ever drawn since the world began. 

Mr. BERRY. That was later in life. Why, my friend, the 
Democrats and Whigs up to that time announced that the whole 
country running from Mexico north to the British possessions, 
west of the Mississippi River, was a barren desert, and you as a 
boy knew it on the map as the Staked Plain that nobody could 
travel across except with camels or something of that kind. Now 
the locomotive shrieks in wild triumph to the Pacific through the 
common territory of the United States, and that very land that 
was described as a desert is to-day the granary of the world. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. That was what Mr. Webster said, 
as representing the New England idea. 

Mr. BERRY. Let us see what Mr. Webster said. Mr. Webster 
did not want the State of Texas in the Union. Let us read what 
Webster says about it. I do not like to have Democratic princi- 
ples laid down to me that controvert every position that the fathers 
of the party have ever taken, and I do not believe that the Democ- 
racy of America, when the matter is brought to their attention, 
will go wrong upon this. I believe nine out of ten of the Demo- 
crats of America are for the annexation of Hawaii, and therefore 
I do not propose to be controlled by a Democratic caucus each of 
whose members only represents the same number of people upon 
this floor that I do. But when my party acts, I follow its plat- 
form. 

Mr. BATRD. I should like to suggest to the gentleman that 
there was no attempt in the Democratic caucus to bind its indi- 
vidual members upon this matter. 

Mr. BERRY. I do not know whether there was an attempt or 
not. It certainly did not succeed. 

Mr. BA1RD. Was it not so stated in the caucus, that there was 
no desire to bind individual members? 

Mr. BERRY. I think it was. I saw it so stated in the news- 
papers. I did not remain during the entire caucus. And I am 
not ashamed to go for a thing because a Republican now and then 
is for it, if I believe it is right. Once in a while the Republican 
party does get right. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. Very seldom. 
3483 



Mr. BERRY. I heard the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. 
Richardson] make an argument on this side, saying that the pro- 
posed annexation would have the effect of destroying the prin- 
ciple of the high protective tariff, which I think has been one of 
the curses of this G-overnment. and I should be very glad if it had 
that result. It can not come too soon. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. I hope it will. 

Mr. BERRY. 1 will tell you what it will do. And I intend to 
discuss this before I complete this argument. It will show to the 
world that property like the Hawaiian Islands, lying close to our 
shores, 2.000 miles closer than to any other great body of land, 
comes within the Monroe doctrine, and belongs to the United 
States whenever she can get it by fair means. I would not ad- 
vocate the sending of an army from the United States to take Ha- 
waii from any people who were in possession of it against their 
will, but here comes a government that for three years has main- 
tained itself, with representatives at nearly every court of the 
great nations of the world, and says to us, " We want to give you 
the territory that we own and make it a part of the United States, 
because we believe it will be useful to you and because we be- 
lieve it wdl be better for us, fearing that some other power will 
disturb us." Now, I want to give these gentlemen from Texas 
a little piece of history. Mr. Webster arose and addressed the 
Senate in the session of 1845-46 xipon the resolution for the admis- 
sion of Texas. He said: 

I am quite aware, Mr. President, that this resolution will pass this House. 
It has passed the other House of Congress by a large majority. 

We are doing now just what they did then. A little complica- 
tion on money matters and one thing and another have divided 
up the Senate, and the Republicans do not know exactly how 
many votes they have, and the Democrats do not know exactly 
where they stand. It takes two-thh-ds of the Senate to ratify a 
treaty,and the President has not been able to secure an indorse- 
ment by the Senate, and so he comes now, as they came in the case 
of the admission of Texas, to ask that both bodies representing the 
American people act upon this subject, as was done in that case. 
Continuing, Mr. Webster said: 

There are members of this body, sir, who opposed the measures which 
came before Congress at its last session for the annexation of Texas who, 
nevertheless, will very probably feel themselves now, in consequence of the 
resolutions of last session, and in consequence of the proceedings of Texas 
upon those resolutions, bound to vote for her admission to the Union. 
* & * # * & # 

In the first place, I have, on the deepest reflection, long ago come to the 
conclusion that it was of very dangerous tendency and doubtful consequences 
to enlarge the boundaries of this government or the Territories over which 
our laws are now established. 

There was the distinguished Mr. Webster, who is succeeded 
on this floor by my friend Mr. Fitzgerald, and I have no 
doubt that he has read that speech and probably it has influenced 
him. Yet, in spite of Mr. Webster's opposition, the State of 
Texas is to-day perhaps one of the greatest empires in the world 
in its wealth of soil, in the character of its population, in its loca- 
tion, and in its possibilities for the future. And yet Mr. Webster 
said we ought never to admit Texas, that the country was getting 
so large that we should go to pieces and the country would dis- 
solve. 

Gentlemen refer us to the history of the past. They dwell with 
pleasure upon the history of Rome and of the Spanish Empire. 
£183 



Why, gentlemen, iney were wholly different from this Govern- 
ment. Wherever we raise the flag of the United States we pro- 
pose to give a better condition to the people, as we always have 
wherever we have extended our territory given a better condi- 
tion to the people than they had before. We do not propose to 
take Hawaii with the intention to draw from its resources money 
to be spent here at the Capitol in Washington, and to oppress 
them as Spain has oppressed Cuba and Puerto Rico and the Phil- 
ippines, but we propose to give them the benefit of the great and 
glorious Government under which we live, to give them liberty, 
which is the purpose of, this Government upon this earth, if it has 
any great distinctive purpose. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. Now, one question more, and then I 
will quit you. 

Mr. BERRY. All right. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. While Webster opposed annexation 
as long as he opposed slavery, is it not true that as soon as he 
came to the conclusion that he wanted the Southern slaveholders 
to give him a Presidential nomination, he flopped on the slave 
question on the 7th day of March, 1850, and then, in accordance 
with the behest of the slave propaganda, he advocated the annex- 
ation of the Sandwich Islands? 

Mr. BERRY. It would be very difficult for me to tell what 
passes through the mind of every great statesman who has his eye 
fixed upon the White House or what has passed through the minds 
of such men in the past. Many things were said about Henry 
Clay. I do not propose to comment upon the dead. I do not 
know whether Webster had that purpose in view or not. In 1825, 
when an effort was being made in Congress to secure against the 
claims of Great Britain the territory now constituting the States 
of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, Mr. Dickerson, of New Jersey, 
who represented that State in the Senate, opposed that proposition 
and pronounced it absurd. He said: 

A member of Congress, traveling from bis borne to Washington and re- 
turn, would cover a distance of 9,300 miles; at tbe rate of 30 miles per day, 
and allowing him forty-four days for Sundays, three hundred and fifty days 
would be consumed, and the member would have fourteen days in Washing- 
ton before he started home; it would be quicker to come around Cape Horn, 
or by Bering Straits, Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, to the Atlantic, and so to 
Washington. True, the passage is not yet discovered, except upon our maps, 
but it will be as soon as Oregon is made a State. 

Now, that sounds very much like the argument of my friend 
the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Clark] in talking about Rep- 
resentatives from distant islands upon this floor — a Representative 
with gleaming teeth and savage eyes, who, he said, would look 
upon the Speaker as being good to eat, and he got a little mixed, 
because Mr. Reed was not in the chair. [Laughter.] The gen- 
tleman from Missouri [Mr. Clark] was trying to alarm the 
American people, for fear that, because they take a small piece of 
territory in the Pacific, somebody from the Fiji Islands will be a 
Representative here. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. Do you think it would really alarm 
the American people very much if the cannibals did get Mr. 
Reed? [Laughter.] 

Mr. BERRY. Well, that is a question you and Mr. Reed can 
settle for yourselves. You and Mr. Reed being together upon this 
proposition, I suppose you can determine that question better than 
I can. [Laughter.] 

3483 



All along the line, it does not make any difference, where you 
have added territory to this country there has been some loud- 
mouthed people who said it would not do. They said on the east- 
ern seaboard of Massachusetts that if we were to open territory 
anywhere beyond the Mississippi, the people of Massachusetts 
and New Hampshire would move out there and hunt bear with 
the people in that country, and the fellows who had been used to 
fishing on the eastern seaboard and the hunters could not get along 
together, and it would ultimately result in a division of the coun- 
try. All of these arguments have been made; some of them so 
absnrd that people will hardly recognize them now. 

Mr. WHEELER of Kentucky. I would like to ask my colleague 
a question, if he will yield to me. 

Mr. BERRY. Yes. sir. 

Mr. WHEELER of Kentucky. Is it not true that the public 
press of this country that have been advocating the annexation of 
Hawaii have also demanded the annexation of the Philippine 
Islands and Puerto Rico and increasing the Army of the United 
States to 100.000 and doubling the Navy? Is not that true? 

Mr. BERRY. Gentlemen, when I consider a resolution before 
this body, I do not consider it with a view that something else will 
come on hereafter that will complicate the matter. I am con- 
sidering the resolution introduced by Mr. Newlands for the pur- 
pose of accepting the Hawaiian Islands as part of the American 
Government. The Philippine Islands are not yet ours. We will 
settle that question when it is presented. 

Mr. Y7HEELER of Kentucky. Will the gentleman allow me 
one further question? 

Mr. BERRY. Certainly. 

Mr. WHEELER of Kentucky. Is it not the duty of every legis- 
lator not only to consider the matter then before the body, but 
also to take into consideration the resulting effect? 

Mr. BERRY. Oh, yes; what the gentleman says, I suppose, is 
true; but this country of 75,000,000 people has got past that point 
of having to be scared like a child to go to sleep because it is in- 
formed that the bogy man is behind the door. [Laughter.] Why, 
sir, these gentlemen pretend to talk about Mr. Marcy. Mr. Marcy 
was one of the great men in the Democratic party, who wrote its 
platforms and formulated its policy. He had carried on the cor- 
respondence for annexation along in the fifties, to admit the 
Hawaiian Islands into the United States, and a treaty had been 
agreed upon, which only failed of consummation because the King 
died when he was about to sign it. And to show how solicitous 
other countries were to obtain the islands at that time, when the 
King died of measles. Great Britain put the remains on board a 
ship and carried them to his home. Great Britain has had posses- 
sion of the islands once, France twice, and Russia once. 

Mr. BODINE. Will the gentleman allow me to ask him a ques- 
tion? 

Mr. BERRY. Certainly. 

Mr. BODINE. Is it true that a Democratic House and a Demo- 
cratic Senate voted for the annexation of Hawaii? 

Mr. BERRY. A Democratic House and a Democratic Senate? 
No, sir. It was the State Department, where the treaty-making 
power belongs under the Constitution. They did not know that 
it would have the approval of their party. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. Will the gentleman allow me to ask 
him one question? 
3483 



10 

Mr. BERRY. Certainly. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. If Mr. Marey and such men believed 
that that was Democratic doctrine, why did they not put it in the 
platforms? You say Marcy was a man who wrote the platforms 
of his party. 

Mr. BERRY. I do not know why they did not do it, unless they 
were afraid it might lead to some trouble and they did not want 
to talk about the acquisition. They left it until an authorized 
Government offered it as a gift. 

Mr. SULZER. I suppose, no doubt, they did not want to make 
it a party question. 

Mr, BERRY. No; they were not afraid to. About that time 
the Democratic party was well ensconced in power. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. It did not stay ensconced in power 
very long after that transaction. 

Mr. BERRY. Here is President Tyler; he was in favor of an- 
nexation of Hawaii. Buchanan did the same. Was he a Demo- 
crat? 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. He had softening of the brain. 
[Laughter.] 

Mr. BERRY. Well, I suppose every man who is for annex- 
ation has softening of the brain. These are very distinguished 
gentlemen who advocated annexation, and do you propose to so 
characterize everybody who is opposed to it? I do not pretend to 
be a very wise man, but I have read the history of my country and 
of my party, and I say right here that the Democrats upon this 
floor will do a great wrong to their party whenever they plant them- 
selves against the annexation of Hawaii. 

Mr. GROW. Will the gentleman permit me to interrupt him 
before he leaves reference to Mr. Marcy? 

Mr. BERRY. Yes, sir. 

Mr. GROW. It is a well-known fact to those familiar with the 
inside politics at the time the Missouri Compromise was before 
Congress that Marcy was opposed to it because it was an exten- 
sion of slavery. 

Mr. BERRY. Yes. Now, Grant was not a Democrat, but he 
came pretty near it. We thought of nominating him for Presi- 
dent, but Republicans got at him first. Harrison was for it, 
McKinley is for it, Admiral Dirpont, General Schofield, Mahan, 
Secretary of State Webster, Marcy, Buchanan. Bayard, Sherman, 
Day— all for it. It seems to have been a universal sentiment up to 
this time, and now they come, because they are following Grover 
Cleveland— oh, it is a beautiful picture I have of my friend Clark 
of Missouri, who always denounced him, now holding him up as 
the only example he had to follow — he and the distinguished gen- 
tleman, Mr. Bland, from Missouri. 

Mr. CLARK of Missouri. That is the only thing I regret — 
where I am. [Laughter.] 

Mr. BERRY. Well, get down on your knees and pray for for- 
giveness. [Laughter.] 

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Dalzell) . The time of the 
gentleman from Kentucky has expired. 

Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I only want two or three minutes 
more, and then I will close. Coming down to the question of 
Hawaii, ever since 1820, when the little colony of American mis- 
sionaries went to the island for the purpose of civilizing the peo- 
ple, down to the present moment, the tendency of that little bunch 

8483 



11 

of islands lias been toward the United States. When King Kala- 
kaua died after four Karnehamehas had been on the throne — the 
first Kameharneha was the man that gave the country its freedom 
and authorized the holding of private estates, destroying the 
feudal system that had existed on the island before 1840 — the 
eountry went along smoothly until Kalakaua came on the throne. 

The debt of the country was nearly all made after King Kala- 
kaua ascended the throne, and he attempted to oppress the people. 
In the meantime there had gone to the island a large number of 
Americans, so that to-day they own three-quarters of all the prop- 
ei-ty of the Hawaiian Islands. After his death — and he died at 
San Francisco — the United States Government in its regard for 
that little power that had been standing there begging so long to 
be a part of this country, ordered the U. S. S. Charleston to carry 
his remains back to Honolulu for interment. 

Mrs. Domini s was placed on the throne, and in 1893 she proposed 
to overturn the whole republican system as it existed on that 
island and had been growing up for fifty years and establish 
again an absolute monarchy with herself at the head and every- 
thing at her disposal without a legislative branch of government. 
The American people owning three-quarters of the property of 
the island said,. ' ' This shall not be done, "and they undertook to stop 
it. The U. S. S. Boxton was in port, and finding that our American 
people's property was in danger, she moved up to the wharf and 
put her marines into the streets and without molesting anybody 
went to a hall and said, "We shall see that the property of the 
American people is not injured." 

Well, Mrs. Doininis went off the throne by compulsion. The 
Republic was announced; a legislative body was elected very simi- 
lar to the Constitution of our own States. Under a constitution 
the Republic of Hawaii, after three years of successful administra- 
tion, a country able to pay its expenses, that has in the last year 
collected $676,000 of revenue and paid $70, 000 of its debt r comes to 
the United States and says: 

Assume the little public debt that stands over us of $3,900,000, and we 
will turn over to you $0,000,000 worth of public property if you will take us 
under the folds of your flag. 

Is there anything wrong in that? What nation on the face of 
the earth has a right to come and object that the United States 
shall accept property tendered to her gratuitously and which 
the best minds of her country say is indispensable for the defense 
of her Pacific seaports? 

My friend from Missouri [Mr. Clark] was talking about the 
Hawaiian Islands of the olden time, before 1818. There was no 
such necessity arising on the Pacific Ocean at that time, for we 
had not reached the Pacific Ocean by California. We then had no 
Pacific coast communication with Honolulu; but now the trade 
between San Francisco and Honolulu amotmts to $24,000,000 a 
year. 

Some gentlemen say it is going to interfere with the sugar trust. 
Why, gentlemen, the sugar trust is against annexation, and I will 
tell you why. Because the Hawaiian planter sells his sugar to 
the trust at" $3'. 50 a ton less than New York or London prices. If 
they do not sell it to the sugar trust, they will have to carry it around 
the Horn and take it to England, with all the insurance and loss 
of time, and so they are obliged to discount this $2.50 on every 
ton of sugar made, out of which the trust makes about five hun- 
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dred thousand a year, with an addition of about $3,000,000 for 
refining. 

Mr. BALL. Would not the case be the same if those islands 
were a part of the United States? 

Mr. BERRY. Of course not. The high grades of sugar — re- 
fined sugar— coming from Honolulu to the United States pay a 
duty. Every particle of sugar that grades above 97 per cent comes 
in with a duty. It is shipped directly to the United States. I 
have seen it rolled out from the refinery; it is almost as white as 
refined sugar, and of a most delightful flavor. That is the reason 
the sugar trust is against annexation, because if annexation can 
be defeated it is $8,000,000 a year in their pockets. Another reason 
is that the younger Spreckels owns 40,000 acres of the best land 
of the Hawaiian Islands — a magnificent plantation — and it is cul- 
tivated by contract labor brought from China and Japan. Spreck- 
els knows that whenever the American flag goes up over Hawaii 
the laws of the United States apply to it, and that contract labor 
must come to an end. That is one reason for opposition to annex- 
ation; it is very easily explained; it does not take very many 
words. 

I listened with attention yesterday to a discussion of this ques- 
tion by my distinguished friend from Georgia. Listening to his 
argument, as well as that of my friend from Indiana [Mr. John- 
son] , one would suppose that the people of Hawaii are a lot of 
heathens. I want to say that education is more universal in the 
Hawaiian Islands than it is in the State of Georgia. There is not 
a child reared on those islands 10 years of age who can not read and 
write. I question whether a single cotton State can boast of the 
same thing. Fourteen dollars a head is set apart by the Hawaiian 
Islands for the education of children. The country is dotted over 
with schoolhouses. The city of Honolulu has excellent kinder- 
gartens and primary schools, and an elegant college, with beauti- 
ful grounds embracing 15 acres, an edifice built of stone, which 
would be a credit to any State of this Union. The people there 
are honest. You can sleep in Honolulu with your doors wide 
open without apprehension of trouble. They are not the savages 
which some of our friends here would have us believe. If brought* 
here for the purpose of representing that country, they would 
not scare our Speaker, as my friend from Missouri [Mr. Clark] 
seems to imagine. 

I want to say to my distinguished friend from the State of Ken- 
tucky that in Honolulu and in the whole of the Hawaiian Islands 
education is more thorough and more money is spent per capita 
for the education of the children than in the State of Kentucky. 

As to the military necessity of these islands, whose opinion are 
we to take? Are we going to take that of some of these young 
gentlemen who never heard a gun fire in real war? 

Mr. CLARDY. The gentleman will allow me to say that the 
Chinese contract laborers of that country constitute a very large 
majority of the people. 

Mr. BERRY. I want to say to the gentleman that the China- 
men and the Japanese are not naturalized citizens of that coun- 
try, and under its constitution can not be; and when the flag of 
our country goes over Hawaii no Chinaman and no Japanese of 
that country can come to the United States by virtue of his being 
a resident of Hawaii. 

Mr. CLARDY. If those islands are annexed to the United 
States, do not those people become citizens? 

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Mr. BERRY. No; they can not become citizens under the 
laws of the United States", and the Hawaiian treaty prohibits it, 
which the Newlands resolution purposes to approve. 

Mr. CLARDY. Then the fourteenth amendment does not 
mean anything. 

Mr. BERRY. The Chinaman, when he gets together a few 
hundred dollars, will go back to die in the happy Land of the Sun 
from which he came. There are not so many of them there as 
there are to-day in the city of San Francisco. 

On this question of military necessity I am glad to see that map 
displayed there, because I think it is the best argument that can 
be made on this floor. Why, sir, my friend from Arkansas [Mr. 
Dinsmore] has become a great navigator. In spite of the fact 
that there are hundreds of men, embracing some of the brightest 
minds of this country, devoting themselves to the exploration of 
the trackless ocean, and in spite of the fact that such men have 
been endeavoring for hundreds of years to find out the best, the 
most expeditious, the safest lines for ocean travel, we have discov- 
ered an Arkansas Congressman who, ahead of all these naviga- 
tors, has found a new route, better than any previous one from 
America westward to Asia. 

Mr. DINSMORE. I should like to ask the gentleman from Ken- 
tucky whether he controverts or denies any statement of fact 
which I made with reference to that ? 

Mx\ BERRY. The only thing I complain of in the gentleman's 
remarks is that there was sometimes, as the lawyers say, a sup- 
pressio veri. 

Mr. DINSMORE. The gentleman does well to express himself 
in a foreign language. 

Mr. BERRY. Well, I will talk in Kanaka, if it will suit the 
gentleman better. 

We have heard about the immoral forms of amusement prac- 
ticed in Honolulu. Why, sir, I was one of the "visiting states- 
men " of whom the gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Smith] talked. 
I saw the hula-hula dance in the city of Honolulu; and I have no 
hesitation in saying that I can go to Kernan's Theater in the city 
of Washington and see a much more indecent performance than 
the hula-hula dance in Honolulu. 

A Member. How do you know ? 

Mr. BERRY. Because I have been there, and have seen a 
woman plant herself on a trapeze and undress herself, garment 
by garment, while Congressmen sitting about were getting very 
nervous with apprehension. [Laughter.] 

Now, another great bugaboo which I want to answer is the 
statement in regard to leprosy. Why, gentlemen, you admit into 
this country all the Swedes who want to come here, and they 
make some of our best citizens. They are workers in iron, good 
mechanics, etc. You admit them freely, yet there is more leprosy 
in Sweden than in Hawaii. The leprosy will be the same distance 
from us after annexation that it is now, and such subjects are 
excluded under our laws. 

It has been stated here (and the statement shows how little 
some gentlemen know about this matter) that an island has been 
devoted to the treatment of leprosy. What is the fact? They 
have simply cut off a little tongue of land, about 5,000 acres, with, 
mountains just behind it and a wall running down each side, 
making it like a penitentiary, with the broad Pacific Ocean around 
it. And there the leprosy patients are sequestered. They are fed 
by the Government, they are attended by good physicians, and 

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there is good moral care for them in every particular. And it 
is gradually dying out. Why, when Captain Cook discovered 
those islands there were supposed to be oOO.OOO natives on them. 
And yet in the last few years they have dwindled down at the 
rate of 1 or 2 per cent a year. The race is gradually becoming ex- 
tinct. 

Now. what do you people want? You say there ought to be a 
vote. Why, gentlemen, there is not a Kanaka that I talked with 
on the island who had anything but a sentiment about this old mon- 
archy. They thought or seemed to think that if Queen Liliuokalani 
could be put upon the throne again they would all have a happy- 
go-lucky time, as they had during her reign . . What has the Repub- 
lic of Hawaii done for this queen? They agreed to pay her $IU,000 
a year as long as she remained quiet, and they did pay it to her for 
three or four months; but when she started in to overthrow the 
Government they said, ' ' Not another dollar goes from our treasury 
to pay a woman who wants to overturn a republican form of gov- 
ernment." But they have been paying Kaiuiani, who is the heir 
apparent to the throne, $2,500 a year from the treasury of the 
Republic, and a few weeks ago they increasedit to $3,000in a spirit 
of magnanimity. 

Mr. WHEELER of Kentucky. Have we got to do that if we 
take the island? 

Mr. BERRY. No; I do not think we have got to do it, but I 
think it would be a magnanimous thing to do. 

Mr. WHEELER of Kentucky. Are they going to steal all 
these people's property and give them nothing in return? 

Mr. BERRY. We will give them the blessings of American 
Government in return. There is not an acre of land in Kentucky 
that will produce one-half what the land in those islands will pro- 
duce, They have marvelous wealth of soil. I have seen 14 tons 
of sugar produced from 1 acre of land in the Hawaiian Islands, 
and that sugar was worth $60 a ton. You can not equal such a 
product as that on the land in Kentucky or any other State. 
Standing there, as it does, upon the line of the Tropics, bathing one 
foot in the waters of the Tropics and the other in the waters of 
the Temperate Zone, it is the most beautiful and lovable spot upon 
which I have ever seen the sun shine. 

A Member. Does it beat the blue grass of Kentucky? 

Mr. BERRY. It beats everything that I have ever seen. You 
may stand at the base of the mountain with every variety of 
tropical verdure about you and look up to the peaks crowned 
with perpetual snow. You can have any climate you please with- 
out going more than 4 or 5 miles. Now, I have a document here 
containing some information which I have obtained from the 
Coast and Geodetic Survey, and I should like to call the attention 
of my friend from Arkansas [Mr. Dinsmore] to it, but I under- 
stand that some opponents of this treaty say that all the Depart- 
ments here are on the side of this scheme, as though every man 
connected with the Government was trying to do a wrong, and 
that nothing can be believed that comes from any Department. 

Mr. DINSMORE. You do not mean that I said that, do you? 

Mr. BERRY. No; but I have heard it talked around here that 
the Army and Navy people want to build up a great imperial gov- 
ernment like Rome. 

Mr. DINSMORE. The gentleman mentioned my name. Did 
he ever hear me make any such statement? 
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Mr. BERRY. No, I did not; but I want to talk to you now 
about your new route over to the Asiatic coast. 

Mr. DINSMORE. I wish you would. 

Mr. BERRY. I want to test you upon the question of seaman- 
ship. Speaking of the Aleutian Islands, the Superintendent of 
the Coast and Geodetic Survey, in this communication to me, says: 

We know little more than the mere fact of their existence, for they had 
not been studied and charted; neither do any accurato surveys of those is- 
lands exist. The Hawaiian Islands are a midway station between California 
and the Australian continent, which is peopled by an English-speaking race. 
They are not far distant from the Marshall Islands and other groups of is- 
lands which are controlled by other than English-speaking nations. They 
are already the center of commercial enterprise. It must not bo forgotten 
that between us and the vast trade of China lie Japan and Formosa, and 
until recently the Philippine Islands formed a continuation of these barriers. 
A good sailing route from Hawaii to China exists at all seasons of the year 
along the parallel on which Hawaii is situated. 

Up in the region of which the gentleman from Arkansas speaks, 
in the extension of the Aleutian Islands toward the Asiatic shore, 
there are heavy currents. There is the great ocean tide that 
sweeps from Japan toward the Bering Sea, which, striking the 
lower temperature of that region, makes it so densely foggy that 
navigation in that country is not at all safe. Consequently it is 
very rarely used. That accounts for the milk in the cocoanut. 
Yet the gentleman brings in here a sort of triangle to demonstrate 
that to go from San Francisco up to the Aleutian Islands and 
down toward the Asiatic coast would be better than any other 
route. I think he had better communicate that to the department 
in the Treasury which has charge of such matters of navigation. 
It might become very useful to the Government and to our sea- 
faring interests. 

The guns that opened in Manila Bay the other day meant some- 
thing to this country. Suppose that we had been fighting a 
stronger power than Spain and that our vessels had been defeated 
in that fight and been compelled to return to the United States 
for protection or repairs. How gladly would they have welcomed 
the little Hawaiian Islands, with the flag of the United States 
above them, as a harbor to which they could go in their distress. 
And it is not improbable that such a contingency may arise before 
the conclusion of existing hostilities. I have great respect for our 
naturalized Germans. They are good citizens and soldiers and 
have contributed much to the glory of American arms. I would 
not question their loyalty for a moment. 

Germany is assembling a large fleet about the Philippines. 
Suggestions are being made that she might protest against our 
actions in that quarter, and as we have our fighting clothes on, I 
do not know that there will be any more auspicious time to settle 
with Bill Hohenzollern than justnow. We have 158 ships in com- 
mission; and if she feels disposed to interfere with the legitimate 
rights of Uncle Sam, let her come on— 75,000,000 free men are 
ready to meet him. [Applause.] I saw in the paper this morn- 
ing a picture of the Philippine Islands with Uncle Sam's hat hang- 
ing on the corner of a sign, and down below the Kaiser Wilhelm 
looking toward it, while Uncle Sam was therewith a box of goods 
that he was going to sell to the natives to increase the commerce of 
this country. I would commend it to my friend from Arkansas 
[Mr Destsmore] simply as an illustration of what may happen 
within the next few years. 

Mr. DINSMORE. I have thought for some time that my friend 
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was getting his political convictions from the cartoons in the 
newspapers. 

Mr. BERRY. Well, you will find before I get through that I 
have some better basis than that if you will listen with attention. 

Now, I want to say that when we look at the map and see the 
journey of 13,000 miies that the Oregon made and remember that 
the dispatches were announcing every day that perhaps the enemy 
would meet her and destroy her, the necessity for the Nicaragua 
Canal becomes plainly apparent. It must be built; it will be built. 
The intelligence of the American people will build that canal. 
With the Island of Cuba lying in the mouth of the Gulf of 
Mexico, with the Windward Passage one side, the Island of 
Puerto Rico lying a little farther down, with the Mona Passage 
lying upon one side, and another passage upon the other side, 
those islands become indispensable, either as a part of our coun- 
try or in the hands of a people who are friendly to the future of 
this country. 

With the Nicaragua Canal constructed, the Hawaiian Islands 
under our flag, lying directly in the track of commerce with Asia, 
whether from our country or Europe, a commerce the magnitude 
of which can scarcely be estimated will be ours under liberal mar- 
itime laws, pouring untold wealth into our coffers, making our 
people rich and prosperous. 

This being true, let us construct the Nicaragua Canal and annex 
the Hawaiian Republic freely offered us as a resting place in the 
Pacific for military and commercial considerations. These pur- 
poses accomplished, the future of this country is bright almost 
beyond conception. [Applause.] 
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